Null Misadventures (w/ Matt Parker), Why Reheated Coffee Tastes Bad, and the Ancestor of Most Living Animals

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2020

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn why coffee tastes bad when you reheat it; and how researchers found the ancestor of most living animals. Stand-up mathematician Matt Parker will also explain why the word “null” causes so many problems for computer programmers.

Why does coffee taste bad when you reheat it? by Andrea Michelson

Shields, J. (2017, April 14). Can Science Explain Why Microwaved Coffee Tastes So Terrible? HowStuffWorks. https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-science/why-microwaved-coffee-tastes-bad.htm
Underwood, K. (2018, May 23). This is the best way to reheat coffee. Death Wish Coffee Company. https://www.deathwishcoffee.com/blogs/news/best-way-to-reheat-coffee
Gaterman, L. (2015, September 11). This is the Best Way to Reheat Coffee. The Daily Meal. https://www.thedailymeal.com/drink/best-way-reheat-coffee

We just found the ancestor of most living animals by Cameron Duke

Ancestor of all animals identified in Australian fossils. (2020, March 23). Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-ancestor-animals-australian-fossils.html
Balter, M. (2015, March 9). Oldest known sponge pushes back date for key split in animal evolution. Science | AAAS. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/03/oldest-known-sponge-pushes-back-date-key-split-animal-evolution
Evans, S. D., Hughes, I. V., Gehling, J. G., & Droser, M. L. (2020). Discovery of the oldest bilaterian from the Ediacaran of South Australia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001045117
Jellyfish and Comb Jellies. (2019, March 22). Smithsonian Ocean. https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/jellyfish-and-comb-jellies
Werner, E. (2012). The Origin, Evolution and Development of Bilateral Symmetry in Multicellular Organisms. ArXiv:1207.3289 [Cs, q-Bio]. https://arxiv.org/abs/1207.3289

Additional resources from Matt Parker, stand-up mathematician:

Pick up “Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World” on Amazon https://amazon.com
Matt Parker’s official website http://standupmaths.com/
Subscribe to Matt Parker’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/standupmaths
Follow @standupmaths on Twitter https://twitter.com/standupmaths

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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/null-misadventures-w-matt-parker-why-reheated-coffee-tastes-bad-and-the-ancestor-of-most-living-animals

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from
0:04.8	Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Goff. And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you learn about why
0:09.1	coffee tastes bad when you reheat it and how researchers found the oldest ancestor of most living animals, including
0:16.0	humans.
0:17.0	You'll also learn why the word null causes so many problems for computer programmers in our final
0:22.1	edition of Monday math mishaps with Matt Parker.
0:25.0	But satisfy some curiosity.
0:27.0	When your morning coffee gets cold, your instinct might be to pop it in the microwave.
0:31.0	But reheated coffee usually tastes terrible. And you're
0:35.8	about to learn why. It turns out that the process of reheating and cooling messes
0:40.1	with the chemical compounds that give coffee its taste.
0:44.0	Coffee gets its flavor and aroma from around a thousand different chemical compounds.
0:48.8	A lot of these compounds tend to vaporize at high heat.
0:52.1	So if you expose your morning brew to the high
0:54.4	temperatures of a microwave, you'll likely lose some of the compounds that make
0:58.4	coffee taste and smell good. But your hours old coffee may have been ruined before it entered the microwave.
1:05.6	Coffey's flavor can also go off as the hot liquid turns cold.
1:10.2	The cooling process causes some of those compounds to break down.
1:14.0	The oils in your coffee oxidize and turn the cup sour or stale,
1:18.0	and acids might degrade and bring out a bitter taste.
1:22.0	And the hotter the original cup of coffee the faster it'll turn bitter.
1:26.0	But what if you really need to save what's left in your forgotten cup?
	...

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